65th UN Commission on the Status of Women- Virtual Forum

The Relentless Resilience campaign is going to the United Nations

The 65th UN Commission on the Status of Women is completely virtual this year, which gives you a unique opportunity to attend as if you were a delegate in New York.

Last year, the entire Commission – normally held in New York – was cancelled due to COVID (including Aura Freedom’s event), but we are back virtually this year and want to take you with us!

Register for free HERE to join our team for an amazing two weeks of online feminist events to choose from. Once you register, add our event “Relentless Resilience” on March 18th at 2:00pm to your agenda and we’ll see you there!

Toronto Counter Human Trafficking Network (TCHTN)

The TCHTN is a grassroots community network composed of various organizations and individuals within the Toronto area, reflecting the racial and cultural diversity of Toronto’s communities.

 The TCHTN works towards the elimination of human trafficking in Canada and abroad, and to address the plight of trafficked persons through a holistic, human rights-based approach, focused on the needs of trafficked persons as opposed to the crime of human trafficking itself.

Aura Freedom is an active member of the Network, involved in many sub-committees and activities. Members of the Network have collaborated on numerous occasions to address human trafficking in Toronto and beyond. We have met with Municipal, Provincial and Federal government officials, hosted awareness events, consulted on strategies at all levels of government and assisted countless survivors. We have designed a human trafficking response model for Toronto and consulted on the development of a data collection tool with Find Help/211 to collect data on the prevalence of human trafficking in the city.

NGO CSW/NY

Aura is a member of the NGO-CSW/NY network. NGO CSW/NY is a global network that ensures that the voices and leadership of feminist and women’s rights organizations all over the world are included in UN deliberations such as the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). They facilitate the largest gathering of civil society at the UN in support of women by hosting 10,000 women from around the world, coordinating and scheduling 400+ parallel events. Along with civil society around the world, NGO-CSW/NY advocates for the governments of UN Member States to meet the commitments they make via declarations, resolutions, and treaties including:

Women Deliver

Deliver For Good is a campaign of Women Deliver and an advocate for high-level change regarding the rights of women and girls. Deliver For Good is a global campaign that applies a gender lens to the Sustainable Development Goals and promotes critical investments in girls and women to power progress for all. Aura Freedom is an ally and contributor to this campaign (Link to https://deliverforgood.org/partners/) Deliver For Good has thousands of subscribers and frequent engagement opportunities to amplify Aura Freedom’s work.

In 2019, Aura Freedom participated in the 2019 Women Deliver conference in Vancouver, Canada. Aura Freedom was a Bronze sponsor with a gorgeous booth in the Fuelling Station showcasing our work.

Over 4 intense days, our team attended countless sessions and workshops with over 8,000 activists and feminists from 169 countries. Our Executive Director was also featured at the ‘Expert Desk’ as an expert of sexual exploitation and human trafficking and was available to answer questions for media channels and other stakeholders. 

We were also a a partner of the Women Deliver Mobilization Canada team, which connected Canadian organizations attending the conference and called for action on gender equality and women’s empowerment in conjunction with the Government of Canada. As a result of our participation, we attended several high-level events with the Mobilization Canada team and advocated with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Honourable Maryam Monsef and other Canadian officials.

In 2016, Aura Freedom attended the Women Deliver conference in Denmark, joining nearly 6,000 women’s rights advocates and leaders from around the world –including Graça Machel, Melinda Gates, and Annie Lennox. At the conference, our Executive Director Marissa delivered a short presentation on our work preventing gender-based violence in post-earthquake Nepal.

Girls Not Brides

Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 1,000 civil society organizations from over 95 countries, all committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfil their potential. Girls Not Brides members bring child marriage and gender inequality to global attention with high-level advocates involved in their efforts. Girls Not Brides works with Aura Freedom to share initiatives and build the feminist movement to end early/child and forced marriage in Canada and beyond.

For a list of publications featuring Aura Freedom on Girls Not Brides: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/?s=aura+freedom

For a Girls Not Brides case study on Aura Freedom’s work in Nepal: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/content/uploads/2016/09/Case-study–Empower-girls-Aura-Freedom9-1.pdf

In 2016, Aura Freedom represented the Girls Not Brides partnership and delivered a presentation at Global Affairs Canada in Ottawa with other dignitaries and heads of state as Canada led the development of new UN resolutions on child marriage.

#MeToo Conference – Iceland

#MeToo moving forward Conference - Iceland

In September we attended the ‘#MeToo Moving Forward’ conference in Iceland on the impact of the #MeToo movement. We attended workshops and sessions led by fellow feminists, activists, academics, and government officials including the Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir.

A highlight was meeting American political activist Angela Davis and engaging with feminists and change-makers from around the world.

The conference was a part of the Icelandic Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2019 and organized in collaboration with RIKK, Institute for Gender, Equality and Difference at the University of Iceland.

Women Deliver 2019 Conference

women deliver 2019 conference, vancouver

In 2019, Aura Freedom participated in the 2019 Women Deliver conference in Vancouver, Canada. Aura Freedom was a Bronze sponsor with a gorgeous booth in the Fuelling Station showcasing our work.

Over 4 intense days, our team attended countless sessions and workshops with over 8,000 activists and feminists from 169 countries. Hundreds of feminists from around the globe stopped by our booth to take part in our FEMINIST MOSAIC and we couldn’t love these faces more.

Our Executive Director was featured at the ‘Expert Desk’ as an expert of sexual exploitation and human trafficking and was available to answer questions for media channels and other stakeholders. 

We were also a partner of the Women Deliver Mobilization Canada team, which connected Canadian organizations attending the conference and called for action on gender equality and women’s empowerment in conjunction with the Government of Canada. As a result of our participation, we attended several high-level events with the Mobilization Canada team and advocated with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Honourable Maryam Monsef and other Canadian officials.

Let’s keep the momentum going and the fire lit to make gender equity a reality in our lifetime.

 

Humber College – International Development Week

humber college international development week -guest lecture, photo exhibit & more

In 2015 and 2016, Aura Freedom International was invited to attend International Development Week hosted by Humber College in Toronto where we interacted with a network of organizations, students, and individuals who are just as passionate as we are in contributing to positive change in the world.

We showcased our work and projects at the NGO Marketplace, hosted a photo exhibit and our Executive Director took to the lecture hall as part of a series of speakers where she delivered a lecture entitled “Putting Power Back Into the Hands of Girls: Gender Equality and Development”.

Take a look at some videos of our team at International Development Week below!